Below are the complete SickthingsUK news archives going back to 2004 when I first added news to the front page.
NOTE: The further back you go, the less likely it is that links and images will work, because the original sites no longer have the articles.
Alice’s appearance on NBC’s Today show can now be seen online here. It has Alice and Sheryl talking about religion and ‘The Rock’ teen center.
Alice Cooper has been announced as one of the acts appearing at this years ‘MusiCares’ ‘Person of the Year’ tribute concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on January 24th. This years winners are Aerosmith, so it’s no surprise Alice will be there.
Also not entirely unexpected. Alice will be appearing in this years Maui Food Bank charity concert on New Years Eve. This year is the 12th New Year’s Eve event at the Wailea Beach Resort and it’s organized again by Shep Gordon. Ticket’s range between $675 and $2000 for a seat at the table to see Alice and other guests including Willie Nelson, Michael McDonald, Dave Mason, and Weird Al Yankovic.
Last nights Christmas Pudding show seems to have been a great success. The original band headlined the event with Johnny Depp and Joe Bonamassa sitting in for the short set which included ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’, ‘Be My Lover’, ‘Under My Wheels’, ‘I’m Eighteen’ and ‘School’s Out’, before the evening closed with a version of the Sister Sledge’s disco hit ‘We Are Family’ featuring all the evenings guests including Nita Strauss, Rob Halford, Extreme, and Orianthi. You can see the Alice Cooper set below courtesy of YouTube.
Fox10 news had a short video before the show which you can check out here.
UPDATE: AZCentral have now posted their traditional pudding review which you can see here.
AZCentral has an excellent long article about the early days of Alice Cooper with comments from the whole band.
Kerrang! magazine has a new interview with Alice promoting next years Hollywood Vampires shows in the UK.
According to some sources Alice will be a guest on NBC’s ‘Today’ show on Tuesday December 17th between 9-10AM.
Alice Cooper has added an extra show to the US 2020 tour. It’s April 4th in Milwaukee, WI at the Miller High Lite Theatre. Tickets go on sale Wednesday at 10AM local time.
The Adalaide show on February 11th has been upgraded to a larger venue. The show will now take place at the AEC Arena, rather then the smaller AEC Theatre. All tickets will remain valid.
Calico Cooper appears on the new Wednesday 13 cover of Gary Numan’s ‘Films’ which you can hear on YouTube. Alice himself appears on the title track from the last Wednesday 13 album ‘Necrophaze’.
Alice also appears very briefly on the Planet Rock charity single ‘You’re The Voice‘. You can hear him saying a couple of lines at the very start of the song.
‘Three Sides of the Coin‘ sit down with Alice in Mystic Lake for an interview which covers a few things not normally asked.
The San Tan Sun News has a few words with Alice about the upcoming Christmas Pudding show and the original band reuniting. AZ Central also has an article recalling past Pudding shows and the guests who have appeared.
Nita Strauss is on the front cover of the new ‘Guitar World’ magazine which should be on the shelves now.
‘Music In Minnesota‘ has posted a review of the Mystic Lake show with some photos.
News is coming in that original Earwigs/Spiders guitarist John Tatum sadly passed away this morning from “complications of alzheimer’s”. He was 71.
John was there at the beginning, the first Letterman’s show at Cortez High that began the whole Alice Cooper story. After leaving ‘The Spiders’ in 1966 he had various bands and toured the world for the USO. Later he became an ‘Ordained Music Minister’ with a bachelor degree in music from Arizona State University, produced a Christian Radio show, and formed the ‘John Tatum Network‘ to develop “empowering and healing tools to help people find faith, hope and victory in their lives.” Through the JTN he continued to play write and record.
I was lucky enough to be in contact with John for a while and interviewed him for this site in 2009 when I found him open, friendly, and happy to answer my questions about his life so many years before as well as being passionate about his faith and more current work.
My condolences go out to his family and friends.
The Hollywood Vampires have announced four UK dates for next September with pre-sale and VIP tickets on sale tomorrow followed by a general on-sale on Friday. Support seems to come from ‘Primal Scream’. The dates are as follows:
September 2nd – UK, Leeds – First Direct Arena
September 3rd – UK, Glasgow – The SSE Hydro
September 5th – UK, London – The O2
September 6th – UK, Birmingham – Birmingham Arena
Consequence of Sound have a new audio interview with Alice which you can listen to here. There’s also short interviews at the Albany Times Union, Toledo Blade, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Johnny Depp will appear at this years Christmas Pudding show in Phoenix, which is headlined by the original Alice Cooper band (Alice, Neal, Dennis and Michael). AZCentral has a report. The annual show takes place December 14th at the Celebrity Theatre.
OutsiderRock has a new interview with Dennis Dunaway and Blue Coupe talking about the excellent new album ‘Eleven Even’. There’s an album review here. The band have also posted new professional live footage of ‘Under My Wheels‘ from the Sweden Rock festival with guest Ryan Roxie.
Fox24 had a chat with Glen Sobel last week while sitting on the castle stage set, and you can check it out on Facebook.
Glide Magazine has photos from the Greenville show.
The Hollywood Vampires have released a new video for ‘I Want My Now’ and have announced shows in Europe for next August and September. The dates are below. Pre-sale and VIP Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10AM local time.
August 15th – Mainz, DE – Summer In The City
August 16th – Hamburg, DE – Stadtpark
August 18th – Strzelinko, PL – Legends Of Rock Festival
August 20th – Belin, DE – Citadel Music Festival
August 23th – Lingen, DE – Emsland Open Air
August 25th – Oberhausen, DE – Konig-Pilsener Arena
August 27th – Klam, AT – Clam Castle
August 28th – Munich, DE – Olympiahalle
August 29th – Aarburg, CH – Riverside Festival
September 8th – Luxembourg, LU – Rockhal
September 10th – Milan, IT – Mediolanum Forum
Blue Coupe’s new album ‘Eleven Even’ apparently sold on on CD in just 20 minutes, but you can get the digital download at CDBaby, and more physical CDs should be available shortly!
‘Hour Detroit‘ has an few words with Alice on "Why he’s proud to be a Detroiter" while the Greenville Journal has a slightly longer chat.
Ceative Loafing have a review of the recent Clearwater show here, with photos here, while the Sarasota Post has a review as well. KNAC have a review and photos of the Orlando show.
Ryan Roxie has released a new lyric video for ‘Nevermind Me‘ from his ‘Imagine Your Reality’ album. There will apparently be three different videos for the song with two more soon!
The ‘Drifting Podcast’ has a new hour long interview with Shep Gordon which you can listen to on YouTube.
Blue Coupe, featuring Dennis Dunaway, Al Bouchard and Joe Bouchard, will release their third album ‘Eleven Even’ on November 11th and below you can watch the new lyric video for the first single ‘D Train’. ‘D Train’ was written by the late David Roter who also co-wrote the Blue Oyster Cult classic ‘Joan Crawford (Has Risen From The Grave).’
Signed copies of the CD will be available directly from the band, while standard copies and downloads will be purchased from CDBaby. To mark the release the Blue Coupe website has also received an face lift.
Nita Strauss has launched a new ‘patreon’ campaign for her second solo album which is due next year. When you become a patreon you will have access to various behind the scenes videos and clips following the creation of the record from start to finish as well as a copy of the finished record. There are three levels of patreon and you can find all the details here.
Alice appeared on Tampa Bay Fox 13 last week for a short interview which you can watch here.
With the band back in the road (with Chuck back on board!) for the next few weeks there’s a review of the Fort Myers show at News-Press, and a new interview in the Montgomery Advertiser.
Above is last nights Hollywood Vampire’s performance on ‘The Late Late Show’, which was actually recorded earlier in the year when they recorded ‘Heroes’ for the same show.
Nights With Alice Cooper posted a short video of Alice reading a Halloween story which you can watch on facebook. There’s also new facebook and instagram ‘filters’ that can add Cooper make up to your photos. You can check that out here for facebook and here for instagram.
Wednesday’s ‘The Big Interview with Dan Rather’ on ASX TV in the US seems to have gone down well with those who saw it, but I haven’t found a way for the rest of us to watch it online yet. All there is so far is the ‘sneek peek‘ promo that appeared last week.
According to Blabbermouth Alice and Lzzy Hale are among the stars who will appear on a new single by the ‘Planet Rock All Stars’ to be released digitally on December 6th. The single will be a version of John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ and is being released in connection with the ‘Road 2 Rockstock 2’ charity event which sees Planet Rock DJ Wyatt cycling 2000 miles in two weeks.. Limited edition CD’s of the song will be available to buy throughout the event, but the report appears to suggest they will only be available if you meet up with Wyatt at some point during his ride. You can see more info and a list of his ‘pitstops’ here.
Kerrang! have an article looking at the promotional video for ‘Poison’ which you can check out here.
Creative Loafing have a new interview with Alice promoting the forthcoming Florida shows, while Tampa Bay Times promotes Alice’s appearance at the ‘Spooky Empire‘ Convention this weekend with another interview. A third new interview can be found at News-Press prompting the Fort Myers show and there is also an audio interview from WDET Detroit here.
Detroit News has a good report on Alice’s appearance last week st the ‘Kirk Gibson Foundation’ charity bash. Alice appeared in an interview session along side Jack White (White Stripes) and baseball player Kirk Gibson. One snippet of news from this is that Alice was in Detroit recording in Royal Oak for the next Alice Cooper album. Detroit Free Press, Rolling Stone, and Billboard also have reports from the event.
Detroit News also reports that Scottsdale, AZ got it’s first ‘White Castle’ restaurant this past week, and it has an ‘Alice Cooper’ corner as Alice has long been a fan of fast food chain and was inducted into the White Castle ‘hall of fame’ a few years ago.
In other food news Alice Cooperstown is back! Apparently the ‘Talking Stick Resort Arena’, home of the Phoenix Suns, has a new Cooperstown concession stand offering ‘Cuban Sandwich’s’ and the ‘Nightmare Dog’, a foot long hot dog.
The ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ film will get its ‘worldwide release’ on October 26th when it will go live on Youtube to co-incide with Dennis Dunaway and friends appearing at the Chiller Theatre Expo at the Hilton Parsippany, NJ. At Chiller Dennis will perform with The Snakecharmers and special guest Nick Didkovsky!
Nita Strauss has booked a guitar clinic while in New Zealand with Alice. She’ll be at Wellington’s ‘San Fran’ on Monday February 24th at 7pm and you can get tickets now.
Louder Than War has a review of the recent Birmingham show.
Florida Weekly has a new print interview with Alice, while Newstalk has an audio interview.
Backstage Auctions have announced there 2019 ‘Rock & Pop’ auction and as usual it features some Alice Cooper related items. Check it out.
Alice is among the talking heads featured in a new documentary called ‘Come On Feel The Noise – The Story Of How Rock Became Metal’ which is due out on December 13th. You can check out the trailer here.
New 2020 US and Canadian shows have been announced. They are as follows:
April 1st – Peterborough, ON – Memorial Centre
April 3rd – Grand Rapids, MI – Devos Music Hall
April 5th – Appleton, WI – Fox Performing Arts Center
April 7th – Omaha, NE – Orpheum Theatre
April 8th – Davenport, IA – Adler Theatre
April 10th – Grand Forks, ND – Alerus Center
April 11th – Winnipeg, MB – Centennial Concert Hall
April 13th – Regina, SK – Conexus Arts Centre
April 15th – Edmonton, AB – Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
April 16th – Prince George, BC – CN Centre
April 18th – Abbotsford, BC – Abbotsford Ent & Sports Centre
April 19th – Penticton, BC – South Okanagan Events Centre
April 20th – Seattle, WA – McCaw Hall
April 22th – Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium
AC.com Pre-sale tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10am local time and Lita Ford will open these shows.
And so another UK tour comes to an end with an epic show in Cardiff, which closed with a stage invasion by the opening acts! What a week it’s been. MC50 and the legendary Stranglers offered the best support we’ve had in many years, highly entertaining and surely gaining new fans every night, but of course no one can top The Coop and the best live band in the world who tore up the stage despite tiredness setting in from a long tour. What a set list, and what a show! We even had Dennis Dunaway join the band in Brighton and London!
As always a few thank you’s before we get to all the news from the last 10 days. To Alice, Sheryl and the band (Roxie, Tommy, Glen, Nita, Chris, and Chuck) who always give 110% at very show. To Bujie, Kyler, Amber, David and all the backstage team and crew without whom there would be no show. To the great Toby Mamis who always comes through for us to make every tour unforgettable. To Andy Michael for his help, and of course all the Sickthings whose company, as always, has been the very best! Couldn’t do it without you all, and here’s to next time!
UPDATE: Photos from all shows now up in the Photo section.
So… on with the news!
As I quickly posted yesterday we sadly lost Erik Scott a couple of days ago. In my limited interaction with Erik he was always generous with his time and it was fascinating listening to his stories from the ‘Special Forces’ years which he told with affection and pride. He’ll be missed, and of course the Sickthings community sends their condolences to his family and friends. His music will live on.
Back to the UK tour and the big shock was that Chuck Garric only played the first show in Manchester! Couldn’t believe it when he told us afterwards that he would be heading home, as he had the Beasto Blanco Megacruise show to prepare for. We missed you Chuck! In his place we had Hollywood Vampire’s super-bassist Chris Wyse standing stage left, who did a excellent job filling in on short notice for the last six shows. Chuck will be back in the band for the next run of shows in the USA, and Chris will be back with the Vampires next year (hopefully!)
Speaking of the Hollywood Vampire’s they’ll be back on ‘Late Night With James Corden’ on Halloween night, when the show will air the second song the band recorded a few months ago when they last appeared.
A couple of enterprising fans did their best to promote the UK shows, including the bus driver in Aberdeen who wore full Alice makeup the evening of the show, and the enterprising London Underground worker who put this up in honor of the master! (Thanks Mercy for photo)
The Aberdeen Evening Express had an article about AC fan Carol McLean and the Aberdeen show.
There’s been lots of reviews from the UK shows as well. Check out Purple Revolver, The Guardian, Manchester Evening News, Aberdeen Press and Journal, Society Aberdeen, The Argus, Arts Desk, Brighton News, The Express, The Up Coming, Financial Times (subscription), and Express and Star.
And there’s a few new interviews in The Metro, The Telegraph (may need to register), and Express and Star.
Also check out a new interview with Glen Sobel at ‘That’s My Gig‘.
The Daily Mail caught Alice and Sheryl out and about in London and seem surprised he wasn’t in full stage costume!
This years ‘Record Store Day Black Friday’ on November 29th has a couple of Cooper related releases to look for. First is the release of the 1973 Houston, TX show which comes on one LP and one 7″. This was previously released on CD as part of the ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ Deluxe reissue some years ago, but this is the first time it will be on vinyl. It’s being released by Rhino Records but there’s no info on how many will be pressed yet.
There’s also a new vinyl version of ‘Dragontown’ on 2xLP coloured vinyl. This is a limited edition of 1500.
Official announcement from Mickie Scott.
It is with a very heavy heart, that I let you know that Erik Eski Scott has lost his battle with cancer today. Up to the end, he had expressed his love of music and his deep appreciation for having so many talented musicians and friends throughout his life. He was deeply moved by the love and support he received during his battle here at home and in the hospital. Please wish him well on his journey and know that we are so grateful for your support, and as Eski would say, “It’s never goodbye, but hang in there!”
Just popping in to highlight a couple of things coming up. I’ll do a full news update after the tour.
Firstly of course is tonights London premiere of ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ and ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ at the Castle Cinema in Hackney. The first showing is now sold out but there are still a few tickets for the later second showing. Dennis and Cindy Dunaway will be there along with others who worked on the films and it promises to be a fun night! Last minute tickets can be obtained at Castle Cinema, and there is no guarantee there will be any left on the door.
Then there is Ryan Roxie’s guitar clinic at ‘Sixty Sixty Sounds’ in Denmark Street, London, which is also tonight. This starts around 7pm so it’s possible to attend both this and the late film (10.45) showing in Hackney. Again, spaces are now very limited but you can still email info@sixtysixtysounds.com and ask to be put on the list. It’s free!
Lastly, just after the Alice Cooper tour ends in Cardiff Ryan Roxie and ex-Alice/Slash’s Snakepit guitarist Eric Dover set out on their own string of UK club shows as ‘Lost Angels’. It’s not often we get the chance to see the multi-talented Eric Dover in the UK so well worth the trip if you can make a show. The full list of dates appears below. There are also a few VIP packages at £55 still available for each show and you can check availability and get more info at https://lostangelsvip.blogspot.com.
The full line up for these shows is Ryan and Eric on guitar/vocals, Troy Patrick Farrell (White Lion/Gilby Clarke Band) on drums and EJ Curse (Gilby Clarke Band/Silent Rage) on bass. ‘Saints Of Sin’ will open most of the UK shows.
There will be a full news update after the tour when I have time to go through everything!
Solid Rock have announced that the original Alice Cooper band – Alice, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith and Michael Bruce – will headline this years Christmas Pudding show on December 14th in Phoenix. The show will also feature Nita Strauss, Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Joe Bonamassa, and Extreme among others. In the press release, Alice commented “As always, Solid Rock is trying to put together a show with new and classic headliners. The uniqueness of this concert is that you’ll never see this caliber and variety of artists on the same stage again.”
Tickets for the show go on sale October 7th at 10am local time.
The ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ show at the weekend seems to have been a great success and there’s lots of clips and photos being posted to facebook. Probably the best place to go to see them is Dennis Dunaway’s own page where fans have posted tons of images from the show. The setlist mostly included obvious Cooper tracks as well as ‘Black Juju’ and ‘I Miss You’. Original B$B guitarist Mike Marconi joined the band for ‘Under My Wheels’, ‘I Miss You’ and ‘I’m Eighteen’.
On October 30th Alice, along with Jack White (Raconteurs) and others, will be taking part in ‘Devil’s Night‘ at the Shinola Hotel in Detroit raising funds for the ‘Kirk Gobson Foundation for Parkinsons’. There will be various events including a Q&A and a silent auction which includes the chance to play table tennis with Alice! This is a ‘high roller’ event with $350 tickets on sale now.
PRP and Hard Four Productions have posted a 30 second teaser trailer for ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ to Vimeo, and list a full release date as October 26th 2019. The short clip shows Calico Cooper and Dennis Dunaway in a castle accompanied by a short clip of the song. The film will also be shown at the ‘Spooky Empire Horror Film Festival‘ in Tampa, FL between October 31st and November 3rd, and as previously announced Alice will also be at this event.
‘Cold Cold Coffin’ will officially launch at the Chiller Theatre Expo in Parsippany, New Jersey on October 25th – 27th.
NOTE: This will likely be the last news update until after the UK shows as I won’t be home.
It has been confirmed that Dennis and Cindy Dunaway are flying to London to attend the screenings of ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ and ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ at the Castle Cinema on October 9th. They will be joined on the ‘pink carpet’ by current Alice Cooper band guitarist Ryan Roxie (after his guitar clinic earlier in the evening), Astroturf mastermind Chris Penn and ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ director Brian Cichoki. The Q&A will be moderated by NME and Kerang! writer Ian Fortnam.
There are still a few advance tickets available for both film showings which you can buy directly from Castle Cinema. This promises to be a memerable night so don’t miss out!
The films will also be showing in Hollywood on October 14th which will feature an ‘aftershow party’ at the Viper Room. The Hollywood Q&A will feature Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Cindy Dunaway, and Chris Penn. You can get tickets for this one here.
A reminder that Dennis, Michael Bruce and Neal Smith and special guest Mike Marconi, four fifths of the original Billion Dollar Babies ‘Battle Axe’ band, will be performing this Saturday (28th September) at the ‘Fore N Aft Benefit’ at Ives Concert Park in Danbury, CT. You can still get last minute tickets here. The band are due on stage at 8PM.
1883 Magazine have a new interview with Beasto Blanco/Cold Cold Coffin star Calico Cooper which you can read here.
‘Heavy 1 TV’ have a new interview with Nita Strauss during which she reveals she is already working on a second solo album for release late next year! You can watch the interview on YouTube.
Ex-Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell has released a lyric video for ‘Swing It’ from his forthcoming solo album ‘Old Lions Still Roar’ which is out October 25th via Nuclear Blast. The song features vocals from Alice Cooper, and you can watch it below. The album also features appearances from Dee Snider, Mick Mars, Rob Halford and Joe Satriani
Flaunt.com have a new interview with Calico Cooper AND a new video from Beasto Blanco. The video is for ‘Solitary Rave’ which is taken from the bands latest album “We Are”.
Michael Bruce, Dennis and Cindy Dunaway and Chris Penn will all be in Los Angeles on October 14th for another screening of the ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ and ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ films. It’s happening at the W Hotel Hollywood, 6250 Hollywood Boulevard, CA (across from Pantages Theater) and tickets are available here.
Sadly we’ve lost two more music legends this week. Firstly Eddie Money, most famous for the hit “Two Tickets To Paradise’, and who toured with Alice back in 1978. Alice Cooper posted the following:
“I first met Eddie when we did some shows together early in his career, and we’ve crossed paths many more times along the way,” he shared with Billboard. “He kept having huge hits, which was no surprise because he seemed to have a voice that was made for the radio. But of the things I can most relate to about Eddie is that like myself, Eddie had his struggles with addiction and he found his way out of it with the help of his family. Another thing about his family is that Eddie brought them all on the road with him. They all performed on stage with him in his band, and that’s the way my family works as well, we have that in common. Eddie Money is and always will be an American icon of Rock N Roll, and I love playing his music on my radio show every night. My condolences to his family and fans around the world.”
Secondly a few days ago saw the passing of The Cars’ Ric Ocasek and again here is Alice’s comment:
“We have lost another great in Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Famer Ric Ocasek of The Cars. Ric and I actually used to be neighbors for a time when we lived in the Hollywood Hills. Ric had a very unique voice for rock ‘n’ roll, there was just nothing complicated about it and that really gave The Cars an edge on the radio. They spearheaded a simplistic new wave of minimalist rock alongside producer Roy Thomas Baker, much to the delight of car stereos and fans everywhere. Condolences to his family and many fans. We’ll miss ya man.”
Alice will be the featured guest at ‘NAIOP Arizona’s Signature Speaker Series’. The event is scheduled for Thursday, October 24th at the Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe. Registration begins at 3 p.m. The event, ‘Alice Cooper “Unplugged’, a conversation moderated by Valley celebrity Mark Cordes, begins at 4:30 p.m. A networking reception begins at 5:30 p.m.
According to this press release Alice provides a voice during the new season (5) of Nickelodeon’s ‘Bubble Guppies’ which begins airing on September 27th in the USA. No information as to which specific episode he is in yet.
Paul Rodgers (of Bad Company and Free), Joe Bonamassa, and Judas Priest’s Rob Halford are the first names announced for this years Christmas Pudding show on December 14th. Tickets are expected to be on sale shortly.
MMH Radio have an article on the ’10 Underrated Alice Cooper Tracks’ which you can check out here. It includes some interesting deep cuts.
‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ will receive its UK premiere at the Castle Cinema (First floor, 64-66 Brooksby’s Walk
Hackney, London E9 6DA) on October 9th. Dennis Dunaway’s short film ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ will also be shown. There are showings at 9.15pm and 10.45pm, and tickets are available now from Castle Cinema.
Below you can watch the new ‘official visualizer’ video for Wednesday 13 ‘Necrophaze’ which features a guest appearance by Alice. The song is the title track of Wednesday 13’s new album which is due September 27th.
The new Alice Cooper 6 track EP is released today, with pre-orders actually starting to arrive yesterday in some areas. To mark the release a new lyric video has been released for lead track ‘Detroit City 2020’ which you can watch below. Billboard have a short article about the release as well.
The ‘Lost Angels’ shows with Ryan Roxie and Eric Dover are now being confirmed with only one left to be announced. The dates are as follows:
October 16th – Chinnerys, Southend on Sea
October 17th – Yardbirds, Grimsby
October 18th – Nightrain, Bradford
October 19th – La Belle Angele, Edinburgh
October 20th – Cathouse, Glasgow
October 21st – Robin 2, Wolverhampton
October 22nd – Backstage @ The Green Hotel, Kinross
October 23rd – Layton Club, Blackpool
October 24th – Zik-Zakk, Ittre, BELGIUM
October 25th – TBC
October 26th – Waterfront, Norwich
Tickets are available now from Ents24 but there are also VIP meet and greet packages available for £55 from https://lostangelsvip.blogspot.com. Numbers for these are obviously limited so get in quick!
The full line up for these shows is Ryan and Eric on guitar/vocals, Troy Patrick Farrell (White Lion/Gilby Clarke Band) on drums and EJ Curse (Gilby Clarke Band/Silent Rage) on bass. ‘Saints Of Sin’ will open most of the UK shows.
Ryan Roxie’s guitar clinic on October 9th now has an mail address for you to reserve your place and ensure you get in. You can email info@sixtysixtysounds.com and ask to be put on the list. Be aware that this event seems likely to clash with the ‘Live From The Astroturf’ film event, so it’s unlikely fans can be at both.
The European ‘Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back’ tour began last week in Switzerland with no changes to the setlist. The opening show did feature a surprise appearance by Dee Snider on ‘School’s Out’, during which the band went into Twisted Sister’s ‘We Not Gonna Take It’ for a few bars much to the surprise of Dee it seems! You can check out video of it here.
Alice was on French TV last week appearing on a show called ‘Quotidien avec Yann Barthès’ and you can watch this on their site. It’s dubbed in French but you can just about hear Alice speaking underneath.
Going by a post to social media Alice will be premiering a track, possibly ‘Detroit City 2020’, on Monday’s ‘Nights With Alice Cooper’. The song is from the new ‘Breadcrumbs EP’ which is out next week on vinyl and download. For collectors there is a (French?) three song promo CD around which features ‘Detroit City’, ‘East Side Story’ and ‘Devil In A Blue Dress/Chains Of Love’.
UPDATE: Check out ‘East Side Story’ from ‘Breadcrumbs’ below.
Chris Penn has posted to Facebook to wan UK fans to ‘Save The Date’ of October 9th, suggesting the announcement of a London showing for ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper!’. This is the day off between the Brighton and London shows, but also the day Ryan Roxie has a solo appearance, so hopefully the timings will work out!! More details once they are announced.
Before leaving the US Ryan and Tommy stopped by News Center Maine for a chat. The first clip is an interview with them, and the second clip is a fun guitar lesson by Ryan.
Dennis Dunaway has a new song on the forthcoming album by country singer Mary Lamont. The song is called ‘What Was Right For You Left Nuthin’ For Me’ and will feature on Mary’s new album ‘Not Far From Here’ which is due September 13th. Dennis doesn’t play on the album, but the connection is that before she was a country star Mary Lamont worked for Alice Cooper at Alive Enterprises, their management company.
In a few days it will be the 50th anniversary of the legendary ‘Chicken Incident’ at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival. Global News has an article about the event, and while it only mentions Alice Cooper in passing I thought the background info they have on John Lennon’s appearance was worth reading as I don’t think I’ve seen it before.
It’s been a bit quiet this last week in the space between US and European shows but here’s a few things worth mentioning.
Alice will be a guest at the Spooky Empire event at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, FL on November 1st and 2nd. Other guests include Cassandra Peterson (Elvira), Mia Farrow, Clive Barker, Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Ted Raimi among others.Tickets are on sale now
Alice will also feature on the new AXS-TV (US) series of ‘The Big Interview’ with Dan Rather. The new season kicks off on October 1st at 8PM ET/5PM PT with AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, and the Alice Cooper episode is scheduled to air on October 29th.
Road Dog Music Group have posted a new interview with Michael Bruce which you can watch on YouTube.
Arenan in Finland have an interview with Neal Smith and while most of it is in Swedish Neal’s comments are in English. This one is available for the next month only.
UPDATE: Here’s even more on Neal in Finland including video
The New Zealand Herald has a short interview with Alice promoting the recently announced New Zealand shows.
Steve Hunter’s amazing solo on ‘I Am Made Of You’ from ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ made #29 on the Planet Rock “40 Greatest Guitar Solos” listener poll!
It appears that ‘Lost Angels’, a band featuring Ryan Roxie and Eric Dover (‘Eyes Of Alice Cooper’ etc), are playing some shows in the UK in October between Alice Cooper tours. An advert was posted a few times on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, but so far it seems no actual dates or venues have been properly announced! A bit of searching turned up a list of shows on Ents24, but many venue sites or their Facebook pages show no sign of the shows, so it’s hard to know exactly what is going on and if they are happening. There’s also a gap in the schedule on Ents24 suggesting there may be more shows to come (London?). ‘Lost Angels’ last played the UK some years ago, including a great show at the Camden Underworld, playing a set of covers including the odd Alice song of course.
Two more shows have been added to the November US tour. They are:
November 22nd – Tilles Center For The Performing Arts, Brookville, NY
November 23rd – Ocean Resort Casino Ovation Hall, Atlantic City, NJ
Tickets for both go on sale this Friday.
There’s another article on the ‘…Astroturf’ New York event over at My Global Mind with some great photos. There’s also a piece at NJArts if you haven’t already seen it.
Alice turns up in yet another music documentary due out soon. This one is Jon Brewer’s ‘Chuck Berry’ and you can see the trailer, with Alice, on YouTube.
Hollywood Soapbox has a review of the recent Holmdel show under the title “As a live act, Alice Cooper has no comparison”, as if there was any doubt. Glide Magazine has a ton of photos from the Camden show.
The New York ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ event on Wednesday appears to have been a huge success. As well as seeing the movie and Dennis Dunaway’s ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ film the sold out audience were also treated to a short live performance by the Snake Charmers (Dennis, drummer Russ Wilson, guitarist Nick Didkovsky and Tish and Snooky) which featured ‘Feed My Frankenstein'(Beasto version) with Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper, ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ with Chuck on bass and Dennis singing while Calico danced, a storming ‘Black Juju’ with Ryan Roxie on guitar, and a final ‘I’m Eighteen’ with everyone joining in.
Luckily all four songs were filmed and you can check them out courtesy of Otom Izot on YouTube. NJArts has a review of the evening and there are also lots of photos from the night all over facebook.
Thursday night on tour saw a mini-stage invasion in New Jersey when the band were joined by Halestorm and Chris Motionless (from opener Motionless In White) for ‘School’s Out’. With so many guitars on stage Tommy didn’t even bother to play and instead just sang and threw out picks. Check out this video to see how much fun they’re having this year!
Alice turned up briefly on Australia’s ‘Today’ show promoting the new Australian dates and you can watch that here.
Nita Strauss has announced three guitar clinics next month during the European tour. The dates are:
September 4th – Prima Cordes, Bordeaux
September 6th – Leturagia, Madrid
September 25th – DLX Music, Stockholm
Contact the venues directly for more info on tickets etc.
Solid Rock have announced that this years Christmas Pudding show, the 18th, will take place on December 14th at the Celebrity Theater in Phoneix as usual. Guest will be announced later in the year. They have also announced the date of next years Alice Cooper Golf Tournament which will take place on April 25th 2020. Again no further details this far ahead but keep an eye on the Solid Rock site for updates.
Alice Cooper has announced a series of shows in Australia and New Zealand for February 2020. The dates are as follows:
8th February – Perth, AUS, RAC Arena
11th February – Adalaide, AUS, AEC Theatre
14th February – Melbourne, AUS, Rod Laver Arena
15th February – Sydney, AUS, Qudos Bank Arena
18th February – Brisbane, AUS, Entertainment Center
20th February – Auckland, NZ, Trusts Arena
22nd February – Christchurch, NZ, Horncastle Arena
Support at all shows will come from Airbourne and MC50 with tickets going on sale Wednesday.
Loudwire have a short interview with Alice, while the Herald-Whig have a review of the St. Louis show and Substream Magazine review the Nashville show with photos.
Dennis Dunaway and Blue Coupe were interviewed by Metal-Rules while in Sweden and the results are up now. This is a nice long interview
Compilation album ‘Classicks’ is being reissued on translucent black vinyl by Friday Music on October 4th.
Alice Cooper has announced two more shows during the November US tour. They are:
November 18th – Richmond, KY – EKU Center for the Arts
November 26th – Toledo, OH – Stranahan Theater
Tickets for these shows go on sale this Friday at 10AM local time.
As previously mentioned both ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ and ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ will be shown at during a special evening at Theatre 80 St Marks in New York on August 14th. More details on the event have been announced.
Each film showing will be followed by a brief Q&A, Calico Cooper will be doing a special performance to “Cold Cold Coffin”, and then Chuck Garric and Calico will perform their Beasto Blanco version of ‘Feed My Frankenstein.’ Guitarist extraordinaire Ryan Roxie will also be there playing along with Dennis Dunaway and ‘Snake Charm’ featuring Nick Didkovsky and Russ Wilson with background vocals compliments of the Darlings of The Demented, Tish and Snooky of Manic Panic fame. Signed Calico Angel posters and ‘Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!’ books, as well as some rare memorabilia will also be available for purchase. You don’t want to miss this one if you can get there. Tickets are available now.
It’s no surprise that Lzzy Hale has joined the band during ‘School’s Out’ a couple more times this week, but in Cedar Park, TX they were also joined by Hollywood Vampire Joe Perry, presumably on route to meet up with the rest of the Vampires for the ‘Late Late Show’ performance the following night.
The TV performance was perhaps a little disappointing, in that the band only performed ‘heroes’ again, as with their last TV appearance. There was also a short skit at the beginning of the show, with Alice showing Joe and Johnny the chords to the song in the dressing room, but no interview or other content. A short video posted by Glen Sobel showed they also played ‘I Want My Now’ so maybe that will show up sometime later.
Goldmine Magazine has posted their feature on the original band which has quotes from Dennis, Neal and Michael about the split and reunions.
Alice Cooper has announced two addition shows in November with tickets going on sale this Friday at 10am local time. They are:
November 19th – Louisville, KY – Palace Theatre
November 30th – Waukegan, IL – Genesee Theatre
Dennis Dunaway will be the closing speaker at the Hudson Valley Music Summit in Kingston, New York on August 9th where he will also show his ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ film.
Also announced is a “special giveaway” to celebrate 30 years of ‘Trash’. The grand prize winner will receive two VIP diamond insanity meet and greet packages plus tickets to a show in November, signed ‘Rise’ Hollywood Vampires box set. merchandise pack and a “one of a kind” Alice Cooper ‘Trash’ can. You can enter here. Travel to the show and accommodation is NOT included.
Rochester City Newspaper has a new interview with Alice which you can read here.
The Hollywood Vampires will be on ‘The Late Late Show with James Corden’ on July 30th. The show airs at 12.35 ET/PT (11.35 CT).
Ryan Roxie has announced that he will be performing a guitar clinic at ‘Sixty Sixty Sounds‘ in Denmark Street, London on Wednesday October 9th at 7pm, the day off between the Brighton and London Alice Cooper shows. Ryan will be giving guitar tips, telling stories, signing things, and likely playing a few songs as well. The appearance is sponsored by Marshall Amps.
Alice is among the guests announced to appear on the new Wednesday 13 album. The album is called ‘Necrophaze’ and Alice provides an introduction and performs on the title track. The record is due September 27th and also features Children Of Bodom’s Alexi Laiho and Lacuna Coil vocalist Cristina Scabbia.
Alice Cooper spoke to Ultimate Classic Rock about the welcome addition of some rarely played songs to this year set list. He’s also interviewed by KLBJ Austin in Texas which you can listen to here.
Apparently Pandora Music in the US has a track by track breakdown of ‘Trash’ by Alice, marking the albums 30th anniversary yesterday. Unfortunately it’s not available in most other areas of the world.
Calico Cooper is listed as making a guest appearance on the new album by Finnish band ’69 Eyes’. The album is called ‘West End’ and is out on September 13th via Nuclear Blast. Calico is featured on a song called ‘The Last House On The Left’ along with Wednesday 13 & Dani Filth (Cradle Of Filth)
Mitch Lafon interviewed drummer Glen Sobel earlier this year and you can hear their chat now on YouTube.
While a lot of US newspapers are still preventing non-US fans visiting their sites you can see a few tour reviews and photos at Metal Rules,TimesOnline, Eponymous Review, Audio Ink, Metal Rules, and Rock’n’Folk.
On September 13th EarMusic will release Alice Cooper’s tribute to the ‘Garage Rock Heroes’ from his hometown Detroit City. Entitled ‘The Breadcrumbs EP’, it features six brand new recordings and will be available both as a digital download and on limited edition (20,000), numbered 10” Vinyl. The six tracks are as follows:
1. Detroit City 2020
2. Go Man Go
3. East Side Story
4. Your Mama Won’t Like Me
5. Devil In A Blue Dress/Chains Of Love
6. Sister Anne
‘Detroit City 2020’ is presumably an updated version of the Alice Cooper song from ‘The Eyes Of Alice Cooper’.
‘East Side Story’ is likely an early Bob Seger song released as ‘The Last Heard’ in 1966.
‘Your Mama Won’t Like Me’ is the title of a 1975 Suzi Quatro song and album.
‘Devil In A Blue Dress’ is likely a cover of a 1964 Shorty Long song, later covered by ‘Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels’, which reached #4 on the Billboard charts in 1966.
‘Sister Anne’ is likely a cover of the MC5 song from 1971.
‘Go Man Go’ appears to be a new original song.
Alice spoke about recording material in Detroit in recent interviews and among the names listed on the cover are Johnny “Bee” Badanjek (Detroit Wheels, Bob Seger, and who was on ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’), Mark Farmer (Grand Funk Railroad), Wayne Kramer (MC5), Paul Randolph and Mick Collins.
In other news the Hailstorm co-headline leg of the ‘Ol Black Eyes Is Back’ tour began on Wednesday and fans will be glad to know Alice is playing last, and performing the full show on these dates. NO songs have been cut for these shows. Going by videos from the tour the band are on fire this year, and Alice is sounding amazing! For the first show they were also join by Lzzy Hale for ‘School’s Out‘ in what is unlikely to be her only guest appearance.
Speaking of guests, Dennis Dunaway again joined the band at the Cleveland show. Not big surprise as he was in town for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s ‘Alice Cooper Fan Day’ the same day. At the Rock Hall Dennis, Joe and Albert Bouchard (Blue Coupe) were interviewed, and also performed on the outside stage with the local ‘School Of Rock’.
Dennis is also interviewed by ‘My Global Mind‘ discussing the ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ film amongst other things.
Cleveland Scene have a review and photos from the Cleveland show and Ultimate Classic Rock also has photos. They also have a new article about ‘The Last Temptation’ album.
Fox8 (via Blabbermouth as Fox8 is blocked outside the USA) have a news story reporting Alice and Sheryl showed up at a Northeast Ohio church on Sunday to take part in the service and talk about how his religion has effected their lives.
UPDATE: You can see more footage here.
TribLive have a new interview with Alice.
According to Blabbermouth Alice will be making an appearance on a new album by Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell along with other guests including Rob Halford and Dee Snider. The album, entitled ‘Old Lions Still Roar’, is due later this year through Nuclear Blast Records.
Revolver magazine has a new interview with Alice which you can read here, and as I forgot to mention it last week the Hollywood Vampires are also in the new issue of ‘Planet Rock’ magazine in the UK.
Dennis Dunaway was on WJCU’s ‘Metal On Metal’ show a few days ago and they played ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ during the interview. Unfortunately I’ve yet to find anywhere the show is available to listen to. Dennis and Blue Coupe will be at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland on July 14th where they will show ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ and ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ as part of the Halls ‘Alice Cooper Fan Day’.
And speaking of Blue Coupe, everyone should check out the amazing video of the band and Ryan Roxie performing ‘Godzilla’ and ‘Black JuJu’ at Sweden Rock last month. It’s professionally recorded and brilliant!
Nita Strauss has announced a few guitar clinics over the next few weeks. You can catch her at:
July 16th – George’s Music, North Wales, PA at 6PM
July 18th – N Stuff Music, Pittsburgh, PA at 6PM
July 20th – Rock City Music Company, Livonia, MI at 1PM
July 30th – The Guitar Sanctuary, McKinney, TX at 7PM
“The Bozho” has an article about the time Alice Cooper received the key to Madison, WI in the 70s including a few old news clippings.
The Longmont Observer has an article about the guy who’s been making leather gear for the Hollywood Vampires including Johnny’s guitar strap and Alice’s belt with close up photos.
In the ‘really obscure connections’ department check out this article about long gone Phoenix band Gentleman AfterDark. Some people may remember this band as their album was produced by Alice and Dick Wagner way back in the ’80s. In fact drummer Winston Watson actually played a few shows with Alice as well. Their name has resurfaced after one of their old songs turned up on the soundtrack for the new series of Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’, and the article has some background about the band and their work with Alice and Dick. Tuscon Weekly also has a similar article.
Details are coming through about last nights tour opener at Foxwoods and all reports and video confirm it’s a brand new show with an amazing set list that should really please and surprise many fans. We asked for some of these songs for years, and it appears we’ve got them. Good show Alice! No spoilers here (it’s all on facebook anyway), but if you absolutely have to know before you see your show the full list is in the ‘setlists‘ section.
As had already been revealed the new stage set is a castle-like affair with ramps above, Glenn off to one side and various areas for “surprises” to enter the stage. The guillotine is still there (hard to not include it) but there appear to be a few new toys to play with including a giant baby! All in all it looks really good!
To add icing to the cake, last night’s ‘School’s Out’ also saw a guest appearance by Dennis Dunaway!
In other news, the Roxodus Music Fest on July 13th has been canceled. There had been reports for the last couple of weeks that the festival was having a few problems with licenses etc but it appeared everything was sorted out and the show would go ahead. However on Wednesday it was confirmed all three days were canceled due to “tremendous rainy weather”, which locals found odd as there hadn’t been any rain. Oh well. For those with tickets refund should be announced soon if not already, but Kitchener’s ‘Slamfest’ have announced they will honor all Roxodus tickets if you apply in advance. Not the same, as obviously Alice won’t be there, but could be an option if you are interested.
Blue Coupe have posted a video of ‘School’s Out‘ from the Sweden Rock Festival with guest Ryan Roxie. It’s a professionally shot video and it seems more of the show will be forthcoming.
The Bristol Observer has a short new interview with Alice talking about his relationship with Bob Ezrin. Check it out here.
Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith and Michael Bruce will perform as ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ on September 28th at the ‘Fore’n’Aft Benefit Concert and Festival‘ in Danbury, CT. They will be accompanied at the show by DDP guitarist/songwriter Rick Tedesco. The festival runs from 1PM to 10PM and tickets are available now.
Alice’s appearance on Disney Channel’s ‘Mickey and the Roadster Racers’ is due next week (July 5th) and Disney have released a short promo clip from the episode, which unfortunately is blocked outside North America. You may be able to see it at Yahoo Entertainment.
There’s also a new Alice interviews to check out at ‘Appetite For Distortion‘ and Billboard.com. Billboard also have an article which starts of talking about the ‘Death Pact’ story but moves onto other stuff.
In the last day or so it seems every gossip site has picked up on a story that seems to have originated from an interview with ‘The Sunday Mirror‘ in the UK. The story involves a supposed “death pact” that Alice and his wife Sheryl have, as they couldn’t live without each other if one should die. Unsurprisingly (it’s The Mirror after all) it isn’t actually true and his comments were misreported. Here’s Alice’s statement:
“Sheryl and I do NOT have a death pact, we have a LIFE pact. We love life so much. What I was meaning was that because we’re almost always together, at home and on the road, that if something did happen to either of us, we’d most likely be together at the time. But neither of us has a suicide pact. We have a life pact. And, besides, I’m booked through 2028, so…”
Alice was on Rock 101 The KATT a few days ago and had some interesting comments on the new show which launches on July 4th. You can listen on Blabbermouth who have transcribed some key parts of the interview.
Alice, Johnny and Joe discuss the new Hollywood Vampires album ‘Rise’ on an 8 minute video you can see here or below.
There are also plenty of reviews showing up which are generally pretty good, as they should be as it’s a great album – probably much better then I expected. I won’t link all of them (it’s easy enough to google) but here’s links to a few: Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, and Armchair Rockstar.
The Vampires (well, three of them) are also featured on the cover of the new issues of Dutch mag ‘Aarschock‘ and Spanish mag ‘Popular 1‘
Footage from last weeks ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ performance aired as planned last night in the US and they have posted two songs from the show on YouTube. Check out ‘I Want My Now‘ and ‘Heroes‘ (with Alice on guitar!). The new Hollywood Vampires album, ‘Rise’, is out tomorrow!
‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ has won yet another award! This time it’s for ‘Best Favorite Film’ at the Northeast Mountain Film Festival.
It appears Dennis Dunaway and Blue Coupe will be at the Alice Cooper Fun Day taking place at the ‘Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’ in Cleveland on July 14th and there will also be a showing of ‘Live At The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’, and Dennis’ ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ short film. Get more details and tickets here.
Sometime last year it was announced that Alice would be voicing a character in Disney Channels ‘Mickey and the Roadster Racers’ and after a very long wait that episode will finally air on Friday July 5th. The segment is called ‘Goof Quest’ and features Alice as ‘Alistair Coop De Ville’.
Alice appears in an amusing new advert for Peter Frampton’s US tour which you can see on facebook.
Nita Strauss recalls her first meeting with Alice in a new interview with WMMR which you can listen to courtesy of Blabbermouth. There’s also a short interview at ‘National Rock Review‘
EarMusic have posted a video with short previews of every track from the new Hollywood Vampires album which is released next week. You can pre-order the album via Amazon using this link.
According to a post by Kyler Clark, The Hollywood Vampires will be appearing on US late night show ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ next Wednesday, June 19th at 11.35 ET.
It appears the Japanese edition of the new Hollywood Vampires album, ‘Rise’, will come in a limited edition 3xCD version which will include 21 live tracks as a bonus. This could be the Hollywood Vampires live album Alice has mentioned several times in interviews (recorded in Montreux if I remember correctly), and it’s possible it will still be released as a stand-alone album worldwide later. The extra tracks included are:
01. Raise the Dead
02. I Got A Line On You (Spirit Cover)
03. 20th Century Boy (T · Rex Cover)
04. Pinball Wizard (The Who Cover)
05. My Generation (The Who Cover)
06. Manic Depression (Jimi Hendrix Cover)
07. Cold Turkey (Plastic Ono Band Cover)
08. Come Together (Beatles Cover)
09. Seven And Seven Is (Love Cover)
10. Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin Cover)
11. Five To One / Break On Through (Doors Cover)
12. Rebel Rebel (David Bowie Cover)
13. Suffragette City (David Bowie Cover)
14. As Bad As I Am
15. Stop Messin’ Around (Fleetwood Mac Cover)
16. My Dead Drunk Friends
17. Ace of Spades (Motorhead cover)
18. Eighteen
19. Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith cover)
20. Train Kept a Rollin’
21. Schools Out
Blue Coupe’s show at Sweden Rock at the weekend seems to have been a great success. The band played a mixture of Cooper and Blue Oyster Cult classics with Ryan Roxie sitting in, including a storming version of ‘Black Juju’. You can find a couple of clips of the show on YouTube. The band also performed a short acoustic show and you can watch that via Twitch if you scroll forward to around 4 hours 20 minutes. While there they were also interviewed by Rocknytt which you can read here.
Dennis Dunaway will take part in “The Art Of The Interview” at the ‘Niagara’ in New York City on June 24th. This appears to be an interview event with DD talking to author/filmmaker Steven Blush, but as with many of Dennis’ events you never know what will happen!
Nita Strauss appeared on US radio show ‘Full Metal Jackie’ over the weekend and Loudwire have transcribed some of the interview.
Movie Mogul Dennis Dunaway has announced more showings for the ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ film, as well as the public premiere showings of his ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ short film.
‘Cold Cold Coffin’ will be shown at the Berlin Short Film Festival in Berlin, Germany on July 13th at Kino Babylon, and also at the ‘Indie Horrorfest‘ in DeKalb, IL the same day.
‘…Astroturf’ will receive it’s European premiere at the Madrid International Film Festival in Spain on August 11th at 5.10 Local time. The film is nominated for 3 awards at the Madrid festival.
Following that both ‘..Astroturf’ AND ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ will receive their NYC theatrical premiere on August 14th at ‘Theatre 80 St Marks‘ in New York City at 7.30pm. Each film will be followed by Q&A’s and there will be a live music performance by DD and various friends to close the evening. The ‘..Astroturf Q&A will feature Dennis and Cindy Dunaway, Director Steve Gaddis and Chris Penn, while the ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ panel will include Dennis and Cindy, plus ‘…Coffin’ star Calico Cooper! Tickets for this one on sale now and are likely to go fast. After the event there will be a “gathering” at the ‘William Barnacle Tavern’ in the Theatre 80 lobby.
Also while I remember, there’s a new interview with Alice in this months ‘Reader’s Digest’ (UK Edition) which should be on the newsstands now.
AliceCooper.com has announced a new set of dates for November 2019. Strangely the site refers to these new dates as “a Night With…” shows and not ‘Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back’ shows, the name of the new show which will start July 4th. [UPDATE: Apparently this is meant to signify there will be no opening act at these shows. It will be the same stage show as other shows.] The new dates are as follows with tickets appearing to go on sale June 6th:
November 3rd – Ft. Myers, FL — Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Hall
November 5th – Melbourne, FL — King Center
November 6th – Orlando, FL — Hard Rock Live
November 7th – Clearwater, FL — Ruth Eckerd Hall
November 9th – Biloxi, MS — Beau Rivage
November 10th – Montgomery, AL — Montgomery Performing Arts Center
November 12th – Huntsville, AL — Von Braun Center
November 14th – North Charleston, SC — North Charleston Performing Arts Center
November 15th – Greenville, SC — Peace Concert Hall
November 16th – Roanoke, VA — Berglund Performing Arts Center
November 21st – Glen Falls, NY — Cool Insuring Arena
November 25th – Indianapolis, IN — Murat Theatre
November 27th – Evansville, IN — Old National Events Plaza
November 29th – Prior Lake, MN — Mystic Lake Casino Showroom
Blue Coupe’s appearance next weekend at the Sweden Rock Festival will be preceded by two appearances the day before. On Friday June 7th they will be appearing at 4pm CEST for a “guest Appearance, Interview and giveaway”, and then at 6.30 there will be an “Unplugged Jam” with Blu Coupe on the MC stage. Both are set to be streamed live via the Twitch platform at www.twitch.TV/metal_casino.
The band have also added a new show on July 21st at the Great South Bay Music Festival in Patchogue, New York.
California Rocker have posted a review of the last Hollywood Vampires show in Indio with photos.
When it was announced Alice would be a guest on the ‘Culinary Stage’ at the 2019 BottleRock in Napa Valley it seemed a little weird.. Well, it got weirder. He was there to take part in an attempt to beat the world record for throwing rubber chickens at the same time! Apparently a record of 1013 chickens already exists!! Sadly Coop didn’t succeed, as the Guinness Book Of Records official couldn’t confirm all the chickens did take flight at the same time.. Thankfully the Mercury News was on hand to file a report and has some video.
While at the BottleRock festival Alice joined Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters) and his covers band ‘Chevy Metal’ to perform ‘School’s Out’. You can see video on YouTube.
Two more shows appear to have been added to next years ‘Rock Meets Classics‘ tour. They are 15th March at the Donau-Arena in Regensburg, Germany and 21st March at the Saturn Arena in Ingolstadt, Germany. Tickets are already on sale. Alice will be accompanied on the tour by Tommy Henriksen, and the show also features Robin Zander of Cheap Trick and Danny Bowes & Luke Morley from Thunder!
Beasto Blanco’s new album ‘We Are’ is now out and everyone who pre-ordered should either have their copy (USA) or expect it to arrive imminently (everywhere else). It’s another blockbuster record from the band but has a slightly different feel to previous records. Maybe a little less full on, and a little more refined? Just go get a copy and judge for yourself.
My Global Mind has a review of the New Jersey show with some excellent photos.
Blue Coupe have added two more shows on Ohio following their appearance at this years Sweden Rocks festival (where they will be joined by special guest Ryan Roxie!). The new US dates are:
July 12th – Ottawa Tavern, Toledo, OH
July 13th – Rhythm and Brews, Wapakoneta, OH.
New Jersey Arts also has a new article about the band which you can check out here.
Ryan Roxie has posted a report and video from his recent appearance with the ‘Sunset Winos’, a covers band that also features ex-Coop bandmates Eric Dover, Teddy Zig Zag, and Jimmy Degrasso as well as old friend Stefan Adika with guest Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats.
Solid Rock have posted photos from this years golf event at surrealsister.com. There’s lots of photos to look through only some of which feature Alice, and a few also feature Neal Smith.
CBN News have an article focusing on Alice’s religious beliefs.
Shock Opera have posted video of the Q&A that followed the world premiere of ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago. The picture quality isn’t great, but you can follow what’s going on and hear what is being said, and how often do you get to see Alice, Neal, Dennis and Michael interviewed together!
AZCentral have a review of the recent Hollywood Vampires show in Phoenix.
Blue Coupe will be playing at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, OH on July 11th. Tickets are on sale now.
CBC in Canada have posted a long interview with producer Bob Ezrin talking about his career.
Nita Strauss can be heard on a new single by Duane Morano called ‘Manhattan Nights’ You can check out the video here.
Kerrang! has a new interview with Nita and she will also be a judge on the ‘Young Guitarist of the Year’ competition and Music Radar has all the details on how to enter.
The Hollywood Vampires are over half way through their short tour and various reviews and articles have started to appear. PE.com has a few words with Jo Perry, SF Weekly review the San Francisco show, although the reviewer clearly went to the show intending to trash it. They have some photos too. The Denver post have photos from the Denver show, as does Westword. 303Magazine review the Fillmore show and Glide Magazine have more photos.
UPDATE: Just after I posted this EarMusic released a new video for ‘The Boogieman Surprise‘. See below.
Dennis Dunaway has posted part 2 of his Astroturf Film Festival blog post which you can check out here. This one covers the Detroit festival.
Blue Coupe will be playing with Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter at The City Winery in New York City on May 31st. The event is already sold out but you can sign up for a waiting list in case any more tickets become available.
There’s also a new interview with Dennis at ‘The College Crowd Hates Me‘ which covers a lot of ground including the story behind ‘Black Juju’.
Finally for DD news the ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ mini-movie has been accepted into the ‘Indie Horror Film Festival‘ in Illinois and will be screened on July 13th. Dennis is hoping for other festival screenings to follow soon. For those who took part in the Pledge campaign to make the film, your pledge items have started to ship so watch your mail box!
Nita Strauss has released a new video for ‘Mariana Trench’ which features live and backstage footage from her last solo tour. You can check it out here. Nita also joined US band Evanescence on stage at the Epicenter Festival in North Carolina last week, footage of which you can see at Ultimate Guitar along with a few words from Nita.
Nita is out on her solo tour right now.
Last night saw the Hollywood Vampires hit the famous Greek Theater in Los Angeles and perhaps unsurprisingly they had a couple of special guests. Marilyn Manson joined them onstage briefly at the end of ‘I’m Eighteen‘, and Steven Tyler turned up to sing ‘Train Kept A Rollin’‘.
Last night was the opening show on the Hollywood Vampire’s mini-tour at The Joint in Las Vegas. Not much information has surfaced just yet however it appears the set list was similar to last years shows but with several of that shows cover songs replaced by songs from the new album ‘Rise’. A short rehearsal video posted to social media did show a full set list sheet, however I don’t yet know if that was a final list used last night. Also on the Hollywood Vampires facebook page they posted a very short clip of a second song from the album.
Of course there’s been some interview action promoting the tour. Alice was on KTNV Channel 13 yesterday morning talking about the show, while AZCentral has an interview with Alice and Joe Perry talked to CV Weekly. More coverage will certainly follow.
UPDATE: Setlist confirmed with photos at Ultimate Classic Rock. Check out Alice playing guitar on ‘Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory’.
Nita Strauss has launched a new project called the ‘Body Shred Challenge’, a fitness challenge aimed at musicians and music fans. The promo blurb goes “Body Shred is a unique, 3 month fitness challenge that pairs a love of music with passion for getting healthier in your body and mind! Participants will have the chance to win prize packages valued at over $2,500 while becoming a part of a fun, supportive world wide community. Along with this challenge, participants will have access to an exclusive Facebook group for challenge members to inspire and encourage each other as well as Facebook Live workouts and Q&A with Nita and some surprise guests, and weekly challenge emails from Nita with recipes, workout ideas and more!”
You can find more details at NitaStrauss.com with links to join the challenge.
95.9 KRFF interviewed Chuck and Calico the other day after the Bismark show with Halestorm, and you can listen to the chat on Soundcloud now.
Calico was also on DV Radio’s ‘Contraband’ for an hour long interview and you can listen to that one here.
Backstage Auctions have announced their 2019 ‘Rock Gods And Metal Monsters’ auction and this year it features various Alice related lots which, for a change, are very affordable including tour posters and programmes. The auction runs from today until May 19th.
‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ has won two more awards at the Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival. It’s won awards for ‘Documentary under 60 minutes’ and ‘Editing’. Congratulations to all involved.
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland have announced an ‘Alice Cooper Fan Day‘ on July 14th. The Rock Hall will be airing special screenings of the 2011 Alice Cooper Induction ceremony footage in it’s Foster Theater. The raw footage features special performances and the induction speech given by Rob Zombie. There’s also unlimited free play on the Alice Cooper pinball machine in the ‘Part of The Machine: Rock & Pinball’ exhibit, and 10% off Alice Cooper related merchandise in their store.
AAA.com has a new interview with Alice about cars, but be warned their site is a little silly, as it demands your zip code and then takes you away from the page you want to actually read. If you enter ‘12345’ and then hit your ‘back’ button and intrupt the page loading, then you should be able to read it…
Audio Ink have a new interview with Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper about Beasto Blanco’s new album ‘We Are’ and the current tour.
TheSeeker.ca have a new interview with Damon Johnson including chat about his time with Alice. Damon is booked to play a solo show in London on August 6th at the 02 in Islington. Tickets are on sale now. Check out DamonJohnson.com for a full list of other shows Damon has coming up.
AZCentral have posted a review of last weekends ‘Rock & Roll Golf Classic’ jam show which included Neal Smith joining Alice for a final ‘I’m Eighteen’ and ‘School’s Out’ at the Las Sendas Golf Club in Mesa, AZ. The show also included Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), Tommy Thayer (Kiss), Mickey Dolenz and Robby Krieger (The Doors) with whom Alice performed Doors classics ‘People Are Strange‘, ‘Break On Through‘ and ‘Light My Fire’.
Alice performed his own short set of course including ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’, ‘Be My Lover’, ‘Lost In America’ and ‘I’ll Bite Your Face Off’ as well as ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’ by Kiss before being joined by Neal for the finale.
All proceeds from the annual charity event go to ‘The Rock’.
‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ will be screened at the North East Mountain Film Festival which runs between June 14th and 16th in Dillard House, GA. Exact details of when the film will be shown should be announced soon.
In other Astroturf news Dennis Dunaway has posted a new blog recalling the events at the Phoenix Fim Festival.
‘The Well’ have posted part two of their Alice interview which you can listen to here.
British-born choreographer, actor, producer, screenwriter and director David Winters has passed away at 80. Winters, who played A-rab in the original ‘West Side Story’ film as well as working with Elvis (on ‘Viva Las Vegas’), and The Monkees, had a long friendship with Alice and Sheryl Cooper, and directed the ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ concert film in 1975. You can read more background about Winters here. Alice posted the following to social media earlier today:
“David Winters realized what we were trying to do in 1975 with with our rock production of “Welcome To My Nightmare.” He saw the potential of merging hard rock Alice Cooper with theater. We chose him as director/choreographer because he portrayed A-rab in the classic film “West Side Story.” That film was a huge influence on us as a band. But most of all, David selected an 18 year old ballerina out of hundreds of top notch auditioning LA dancers to dance on the ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ concert tour. That dancer (Sheryl) and I are still happily married after 43 years. I could not have found a more kindred spirit than David.”- Alice Cooper
Ultimate Classic Rock have a new interview with Alice talking about the new Hollywood Vampires album, the next show, a new solo album and other stuff.
There’s also a new interview at AZCentral promoting this weekends Alice Cooper Golf event (which also features Neal Smith) and ‘The Rock’ teen center. It also mentions the upcoming albums.
If you are on the fence about getting tickets for any of the forthcoming US shows Live Nation have announced its fifth annual ‘National Concert Week’, set for May 1st to 7th. This offers fans the chance to purchase $20 tickets (all-in, including fees) for over 2000 different shows, and the offer apparently includes the Alice Cooper/Halestorm shows.
Fan footage of Alice’s full Q&A session from the FanX event in Salt Lake city is now up on YouTube.
The University Of Buffalo has a new interview with Shep Gordon about his career with a few interesting stories.
Alice will be a guest at the BottleRock festival in Napa Valley, CA which runs between May 24th and 26th. However he won’t be performing at the festival… rather, it appears he will be a guest on the ‘Culinary Stage’ which seems to be a bunch of chef’s and celebrities cooking while people watch… Limited tickets are available now.
Calico Cooper posted a message on facebook reporting that her stage baseball bat, ‘Suzanne’ was stolen at the Denver Beasto Blanco show on April 23rd. Here’s the full message. If you can help let her know.
Dear Denver-
We have a thief among us. Last night my bat was stolen from the show. We have a pretty good idea of the guy who took it, but we want to give them the chance to do the right thing before we take further action.
My bat “Suzanne” has been with Beasto since we started. It’s been the same Bat in all the videos, stage shows, and photos. It means a lot to me.
We all Make mistakes. We all drink a little too much and make a bad call, but here’s your chance to make it right before it gets worse. Please return the bat, no questions asked by us, to MUDHEN MERCH, 7190 W Sunset Blvd. #1093, Los Angeles, CA. 90046.
To the rest of the fans that came last night, thank you for an amazing show, for being a spectacular crowd, and if you see you know who with Suzanne, do what you need to do.
The new issue of Goldmine Magazine has a 6 page feature on Alice Cooper including interviews with Neal, Michael and Dennis separately answering the same questions including their thoughts on the original band split, the early days and the recent get togethers. It’s a good feature and worth checking out. It’s the June issue you want with ‘The Zombies’ on the cover (with Alice Cooper listed a the bottom).
Glen Sobel and the Goon Squad (Glen, Chuck, Tommy and Ryan) will play a ‘pre-show’ at Sub Alpine Club in Turtle Creek, PA on July 18th (the night before the Pittsburgh show). Tickets are on sale now from “Sub Alpine Club, Attic Records, Dave’s Music Mine, Record Connection (Niles, OH), Anthony Lamonde and the Borstal Boys and Lily V. Sixx” or by phone on 330-219-0016. ‘The Borstal Boys’ open and you can see the flyer below.
Dennis Dunaway will be a guest at the ‘School of Rock’ event at Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY (Nr. Woodstock) on July 3rd. Dennis will be speaking and sitting in with the young musicians during an Alice Cooper set. This looks like it’s a private event. Also, if you’re going to the Foxwoods Alice Cooper show on July 4th you might want to keep your eyes open for Dennis and Cindy!
When Blue Coupe play Sweden Rock on June 8th they will have a special guest sitting in… Ryan Roxie!
Geeks Of Doom have posted an article about Alice’s recent appearance at the Philly Comic-com with a few photos, and speaking of the recent comic convention appearances ‘Lucifer’ star Tom Ellis posted the photos of himself with Alice at FanX, stating “So it turns out @alicecooper is not only a lovely man he’s also a big #lucifan I am beyond happy.” There is also an article about the FanX appearance at the HeraldExtra, but they won’t let you read it if you live in Europe..
Following the screening at the Dallas International Film Festival this week ‘Live From The Astroturf’ won the ‘Audience Award for Documentary’, the second award the film has won after the ‘Best Documentary Short’ award in Phoenix. Dennis and Cindy Dunaway, Chris Penn and director Steve Gaddis were again on hand to accept the award. More festival screening are hopefully on the way.
Dennis and Chris were also on local radio station Lone Star 92.5 promoting the film and you can see video from that on Facebook.
A reminder that Alice will be at the FanX Comic Convention in Salt Lake City this Friday and Saturday to sign autographs and take part in a Q&A. You can get more details here.
‘The Well‘ has part 1 of a new golf related interview with Alice and while it’s starts with golf there is other stuff in there as well.
Good to their word EarMusic have release details of the new Hollywood Vampires album ‘Rise’ which will be released on June 21st. The video for the first single can be seen below, with the full album press release undeneath.
The Hollywood Vampires – return with new music from their explosive second album, “Rise.” Rock and roll royalty Joe Perry, Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp and shock rock icon Alice Cooper join forces once again for the unmissable rock album of 2019.
Seconds into the opening track “I Want My Now,” it’s clear this supergroup has created something special – the chemistry between the individuals is unmistakable when they come together on stage or in the recording studio. Forget the star-studded lineup’s individual reputations, “Rise” is some of the purest, unapologetic and most enjoyable rock and roll of the year, made by masters of the craft and true fans of the form.
Unlike their 2015 debut record, the new album “Rise” consists mainly of original material, written by the band. There are however, in the spirit of the Vampires’ original mission, three covers of songs originally written and recorded by some fellow rockers who died far too young: an intimate and intense version of David Bowie’s “Heroes”, beautifully performed by Johnny Depp; the late Jim Carroll Band’s “People Who Died,” and Johnny Thunder’s “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory,” sung by Joe Perry. Raucous rock anthems like “The Boogieman Surprise” and “Who’s Laughing Now” (the first single from the new album), capture the natural, raw, celebratory attitude of Hollywood Vampires displayed in their rowdy shows around the world. But the album shows off their range as well with tracks like “We Gotta Rise” – a tongue-in-cheek politics song in the the tradition of Alice’s “Elected” – to the psychedelic gothic epic of “Mr. Spider.”
“‘Rise’ is not only a totally different animal than the first Vampires album, it is unique to anything I’ve ever been a part of. I approached it very differently than I usually do when working on an album. Each of us; Joe, Johnny, Tommy and myself have written songs on this album. What is different though is that I didn’t try to change any songs to be more “Alice-like.” Because each of us has different influences, the sound of this album is very cool. I think that with this album, we are establishing what the Vampires’ sound really is, whereas with the first album we were more tipping our hats to our fallen rock n roll brothers.” – Alice Cooper
“’Rise’ came from pure creative energy, which is just like playing live with the Vampires. The record showcases everyone doing what they do best without anyone looking over our shoulders. There was no pressure or deadlines, allowing us to write and record an album that is one of the freest and most honest sounding records I’ve been part of. I can’t wait to perform some of these tunes live for our fans.” – Joe Perry
earMUSIC, the global independent rock label of Edel Germany GmbH, is proud to announce the worldwide signing of Hollywood Vampires. Following the release of Alice Cooper’s 2017 studio album “Paranormal” on earMUSIC, his best chart-performing work in decades, the label is proud to welcome the band to their family.
Produced by Tommy Henriksen and the Hollywood Vampires, “Rise” will be released on June 21st, 2019 on earMUSIC as CD Digipak, 2LP+Download (various color vinyl) and Digital.
TRACK LIST
- I Want My Now
- Good People Are Hard To Find
- Who’s Laughing Now
- How The Glass Fell
- The Boogieman Surprise
- Welcome To Bushwackers (feat. Jeff Beck & John Waters)
- The Wrong Bandage
- You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory
- Git From Round Me
- Heroes
- A Pitiful Beauty
- New Threat
- Mr. Spider
- We Gotta Rise
- People Who Died
- Congratulations
EarMusic will be posting “Audio premiere and first album information” on their YouTube channel at 11pm UK time, 6pm EST for the US. You can set a reminder if you’re signed into YouTube.
I’ve embed it below, but don’t know whether it will work watching live directly on this page.
Nita Strauss was on Youtube the other day answering fan submitted questions which you can watch here.
The new ‘Hellboy’ movie, a ‘R’ rated reboot for the franchise which isn’t getting the greatest reviews, apparently features ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ on the soundtrack.
Kip Winger makes some nice references to Alice in a recent interview.
I mentioned earlier that the new Beasto Blanco video for ‘The Seeker’ was due Monday… well, it’s just appeared on youtube so here it is!
Ryan Roxie releases a new single today from his ‘Imagine Your Reality’ album. This time it’s ‘Look Me In The Eye’ and you can check out the video below. Roxie is currently in the road in the US as part of the ‘Planet Axe’ tour.
With the ‘Live From The Astroturf’ movie hitting the Detroit Film Festival this week there’s more press to promote it including articles in Detroit Free Press and Music Radar.
Alice was in Phoenix on Wednesday (10th) at the ground breaking ceremony for a new ‘White Castle’ restaurant and was briefly interviewed by a local news channel KGUN. The restaurant chain has a “Hall Of Fame” and Alice was inducted a few years ago. In is honour the new outlet will have an ‘Alice Cooper Corner’ where a photo of Alice will be hung.
Beasto Blanco will release a new promo video for ‘The Seeker’ on Monday. It’s the opening track of their new album ‘We Are’ and the promo was directed by Calico Cooper herself! There’s a short preview on her Facebook page.
Talkhouse has an interview with Chainsaw Kittens frontman Tyson Meade talking about the influence Alice Cooper and ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ has had on his life and career.
Alice Cooper and Halestorm have added a show in Knoxville, TN on August 3rd at the Thompson Boling Arena. Tickets go on sale tomorrow via AC.com.
‘Live From The Astroturf’ won an award for ‘Best Documentary Short’ at the Phoenix Film Festival this weekend. Dennis and Cindy Dunaway, Christopher Penn and Steve Gaddis accepted the award.
Rat Pak Records have released full details of the new Beasto Blanco album “We Are” which will be released on May 24th. The full press release is as follows:
Beasto Blanco, the band comprised of Chuck Garric (long time Alice Cooper bassist) on guitars and vocals, Calico Cooper on vocals, Brother Latham on guitars, Jan LeGrow on bass and Sean Sellers on drums, will release their 3rd studio album ‘We Are’ on May 24, 2019 via Rat Pak Records. ‘We Are’ is the follow up album to their highly successful 2016 self-titled sophomore release ‘Beasto Blanco’. Produced by Ryan Greene, the new album is available for pre-order in various bundle configurations at: www.ratpakrecords.com/BeastoBlanco.
Regarding the new album Chuck Garric comments, “We spent a lot of time channeling, dissecting and arranging the songs from our new album. The idea was, “Let’s make ‘our’ record – not necessarily what’s popular now or what we think other people will like. We said, let’s make a record for us and our fans. Our fans are loyal and our sound is our sound.”
Guitarist Brother Latham adds “We Are” is a novel record for us. It shows maturity in the band, without surrendering our reckless abandon and love of rock n’ roll!”
Calico Cooper adds, “This record has teeth. It’s got a bite to it that I love. It’s message is from the people we see around us every day, it’s heartbeat is so loud. It says We are strong. We are indestructible. We are here. We Are!”
The track listing for ‘We Are’ is as follows:
01 The Seeker, 02 Solitary Rave, 03 Ready To Go, 04 Down, 05 Perception Of Me, 06 Let’s Rip, 07 Half Life, 08 We Got This, 09 Follow The Bleed, 10 I See You In It, 11 Halcyon (Bonus-track CD & Download versions).
AZCentral has a long article about the premiere screening of the ‘Live From The Astroturf’ film tonight at the Phoenix Film Festival. Expect some special guests at the screening!
UPDATE: All four surviving members of the original Alice Cooper line up – Alice, Neal, Michael, and Dennis – where at the premiere.
Ryan Roxie could be a guest on the ‘Electric Crush’ radio show on April 9th between 7pm and 9pm. You can listen in to the show here.
While we’re still awaiting any details about either Hollywood Vampires albums set for release this year, you can now welcome fellow vampires to your home with HV doormats!
Shep Gordon is interviewed on ‘Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast’. which you can listen to here.
Alice Cooper has added an extra show in Cleveland, OH at the Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica (formerly Nautica Pavilion) on July 14th. Ticket go on sale Friday at 10AM local time with pre-sales starting tomorrow.
Blue Coupe have a indiegogo pledge campaign currently running to help finance there forthcoming third album. You can check out what’s on offer here, which include downloads, signed discs, posters and cowbells!
Beasto Blanco, with Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper, have announced headline shows around their previously announced Halestorm support slot dates. These shows will promote their new album, which going from the adverts looks to be called “We Are”, and one would assume it will be released around the same time. You can see the full list of shows in the image below.
Calico will also be a guest on ‘The Jimmy Star Show’ Wednesday on W4CY Radio between 3pm and 5pm. It looks like you can listen in here.
Nita Strauss has also added more dates to her tour. The new dates are as follows:
May 18th – Annapolis , MD at Ram’s Head On Stage
May 30th – Grand Rapids MI at The Stache at the Intersection
June 7th – Harrisburg, PA at Harrisburg Arts
June 9th – Rochester NY at Montage Music Hall
June 11th – Richmond VA at Canal Club
June 12th – Atlanta GA at Smith’s Olde Bar
June 13th – Nashville TN at The Basement
June 14th – Memphis TN at Rockhouse Live
June 15th – New Orleans LA at The Parish at The House of Blues
June 17th – Baton Rouge LA at Varsity Theater
June 19th – Austin TX at Come and Take It Live
June 20th – Dallas TX at Trees
June 21st – San Antonio TX at The Rock Box
June 22nd – Houston TX at Warehouse Live (w/ Static-X and DevilDriver)
Alice was out and about in Detroit last week, taking a break from recording new material! Detroit News snapped a pic of him having dinner with Bob Ezrin and Mark Farmer of Grand Funk Railroad, so presumably add his name to the guest list on the next album!
On Saturday Alice and Dash Cooper were at the Arizona Coyotes Ice Hockey match and “dropped the puck” at the start of the game. You can see footage here.
Solid Rock have announced more details about this years “Alice Cooper’s Annual Rock & Roll Fundraising Bash” which takes place on April 27th before the annual golf tournament. Guests this year include Neal Smith, Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), Tommy Thayer (Kiss), Mickey Dolenz (The Monkees), Robby Kreiger (The Doors), Danny Seraphone (Chicago) and Jonathan Cain (Journey).
The Independent has an article/list of their 10 best Alice songs, which you can check out here.
Firstly, apologies for the site issues the last few days. There was a problem with the host server which I’m told should hopefully be fixed now. As a result I didn’t want to do updates in case they were simply lost, so here’s a catch up on what’s come through in the last week:
Six new shows have just been announced for the USA preceding the Halestorm co-headline dates. They are:
July 4th – Foxwoods, Mashantucket, CT
July 6th – Express Live!, Columbus, OH
July 7th – Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, IL
July 9th – Five Flags Center, Dubuque, IA
July 10th – The Sylvee, Madison, WI
July 11th – Honeywell Center, Wabash, IN
Tickets go on sale Friday but VIP Pre-sales begin tomorrow at AC.com.
Billboard has a new interview with Alice talking about his plans for this year including the tour, the forthcoming new solo album, and the new Hollywood Vampires releases.
Talking of the new tour Alice says “It’s going to be a brand-new show, an entirely new production – all new staging, all new props and everything. It’s taking a lot of the stuff we know we have to do and a lot of the stuff people are not going to be expecting. ”
As to the new solo album, he’s considering releasing an EP of four new songs in time for the tour, with the full new album to follow in 2020.
“There’s a certain Detroit sound we’re looking for [for the new songs]. It’s indefinable. There’s a certain amount of R&B in it. There’s a certain amount of Motown in it. But then you add the guitars and you add the attitude and it turns into Detroit rock. I feel like if we mine around with all Detroit players, we’re gonna find that sound.” He also mentions guest appearances by fellow Detroit natives Suzi Quatro and Bob Seger. “I can tell you Seger and I will be working on something on this new album. I talked to him and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s be fun,’ and I said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ So that’s going to happen in the future.” The original band are also set to contribute material, presumably in a similar way to the previous two albums. You can read the whole interview here.
Alice will be appearing at the ‘FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention‘ between April 19th and 20th at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, UT. This is a signing and Q&A session, not a show.
The ‘Live From The Astroturf’ film will be shown at a couple more film festivals in addition to the Phoenix premiere on April 5th. It will be shown at Freep Film Festival in Detroit, MI between April 10th and 14th, and the Dallas, TX International Film Festival between April 11th and 18th.
TruRockRevival have a cool interview with Beasto Blanco co-founder/guitarist Chris Latham. They previously interviewed Chuck and Calico which you can see here.
Keri Kelli’s ‘A New Revenge’ have released another new video, this time for ‘Never Let You Go’ which you can see here. It’s taken from their debut album ‘ Enemies & Lovers’ which is released March 29th on Golden Robot Records. ‘A New Revenge’ features Keri with Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens (Judas Priest) on vocals, James Kottak (Scorpions, Kingdom Come) on drums and Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy, Whitesnake etc) on bass.
Hot on the heels of the Alice Cooper/Halestorm dates announced earlier this afternoon, now we have six more Hollywood Vampires shows to add to the previously announced Indio, CA show. The full list of shows is below. Still no date for the new Vampires album though – the advertising still shows the first album. According to Blabbermouth the band, Alice, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen, will again be joined by Glen Sobel, Chris Wyse and Buck Johnson. Tickets for these shows also go on sale Friday, but again watch out for pre-sales at hollywoodvampires.com.
May 10th – The Joint – Las Vegas, NV
May 11th – The Greek – Los Angeles, CA
May 12th – Warfield Theatre – San Francisco, CA
May 14th – The Fillmore – Denver, CO
May 16th – Sandia Casino – Albuquerque, NM
May 17th – Talking Stick Casino – Scottsdale, AZ
May 18th – Fantasy Springs Casino – Indio, CA
Alice Cooper and Halestorm have announced a string of US dates for July and August with ‘Motionless In White’ opening. This will be a Co-headline tour but so far it isn’t clear who will play last. What it does mean is both headline acts will presumably get equal time on stage.
“We’ve played festivals with Halestorm, including Rock In Rio, and now I’m excited about doing this summer tour with Lzzy and the band. Can’t wait to get to the first show,” said Alice Cooper.
“We are beyond excited to announce our new tour with the man who burnt the rule book on rock ‘n’ roll… Alice Cooper,” said Lzzy Hale, frontwoman of Halestorm. “Alice is our A in the ABC’s of rock music, and we are honored to be sharing the stage with such a legend and his incredible band. School’s definitely out!”
Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday March 8th, but watch out for an AC.com pre-sale a couple of days before that, and possibly a Halestorm pre-sale as well. There is also a Blabbermouth pre-sale starting Wednesday. Password for that one is ‘NIGHTMARE’.
Dates are as follows:
July 17th – Allentown, PA – PPL Center
July 19th – Pittsburgh, PA – KeyBank Pavilion
July 20th – Detroit, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre
July 21st – Chicago, IL – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
July 23rd – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center
July 25th – St Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
July 26th – Kansas City, MO – Starlight Theatre
July 28th – Oklahoma City, OK – Zoo Amphitheatre
July 29th – Cedar Park, TX – H-E-B Center
July 31st – Irving, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
August 1st – Houston, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
August 4th – Nashville, TN – The Opry House
August 7th – Canandaigua, NY – Constellation Brands–Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center: CMAC
August 8th – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
August 10th – Portland, ME – Maine Savings Pavilion at Rock Row
August 11th – Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion
August 13th – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
August 15th – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
August 16th – Camden, NJ – BB&T Pavilion
In other news:
Alice popped up on stage with Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 a few days ago (Feb 26th) to perform ‘Foxy Lady’ and ‘School’s Out’. You can see some footage here. This was the opening night of John 5’s solo tour at Club Red in Mesa, Arizona. Nita Strauss will be opening a show for John 5 in a few weeks.
Going by release lists for the next Record Store Day (April 13th) ‘Dirty Diamonds’ is getting the vinyl re-issue treatment again. No more details right now. UPDATE: It’s apparently a limited edition (900 copies) vinyl from original record company ‘New West’).
Eonmusic have a new interview with Kane Roberts promoting his ‘The New Normal’ album. which features Alice. Obviously there’s lots of Alice Cooper mentions.
It’s only February but Alice is already being booked for 2020! He and Tommy Henriksen will be performing as part of the ‘Rock Meets Classic’ show which will happen March 2020 in Germany. Also on the bill are Joyce “Baby Jean” Kennedy of Mother’s Finest and Danny Bowes and Luke Morley of Thunder with two more acts to be announced. The dates are as follows and tickets appears to be on sale now:
March 3rd – Dreilanderhalle, Passau
March 5th – BigBOX Allgau, Kempten
March 6th – Hallenstadion, Zurich
March 7th – Arena Nurnberger, Nurnberg
March 8th – Olympiahalle, Munich
March 10th – Tempodrom, Berlin
March 11th – Brose Arena, Bamberg
March 13th – S. Oliver Arena, Wurzburg
March 14th – Jahrhunderhalle, Frankfurt
March 15th – Donau-Arena, Regensburg
March 17h – Ratiopharm Arena, Neu-Ulm
March 19th – MHPArena, Ludwigsburg
March 20th – Messe Halle 1, Dresden
Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss has announced a series of US solo shows between April and June including both headline and special guest shows. The dates are as follows, with ticket details on NitaStrauss.com.
April 10th – Saint Rocke, Hermosa Beach, CA
April 11th – Whisky a Go Go, West Hollywood, CA
April 14th – Brick By Brick, San Diego, CA (with John 5)
May 14th – Amos’ Southend, Charlotte, NC
May 15th – The Firmament, Greenville, SC
May 16th – The Cone Denim Center, Greensboro, NC
May 17th – Veterans Amphitheater, Virgina Beach, VA
May 19th – The Iridium, New York, NY
May 21st – Debonair Music Hall, Teaneck, NJ
May 22nd – Hard Rock Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA
May 24th – Token Lounge, Westland, MI
May 25th – Club At The Clyde, Fort Wayne, IN
May 26th – Everston Rocks, Everston, IL
May 29th – Shank Hall, Milwaukee, WI
May 31st – Zanzabar, Louisville, KY
June 1st – The Winchester, Lakewood, OH
June 2nd – Buffalo Iron Works, Buffalo, NY
June 4th – Greasy Luck Brewpub, New Bedford, MA
June 5th – Palace Theater, Stafford, CT
June 6th – Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA (with Paul Gilbert)
June 8th – Chance Theater, Poughkeepsie, NY (with Paul Gilbert)
Superfan Chris Penn, the man behind ‘Live From The Astroturf’ was on Fox4Ward earlier today talking about the forthcoming movie. You can watch here.
After last weeks UK tour announcement Alice has made a couple of UK radio appearances and there’s been a few interviews as well.
First up was an appearance on BBC Radio 2 where he was interviewed by pop star Will Young (and obviously had no idea who he was!). You can listen again to this one now here. Alice shows up at around 1 hour 20 mins.
The NME has a new interview with Alice, during which he confirms both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page have recorded parts for the forthcoming Hollywood Vampire’s album, which he revealed on NWAC will be called ‘Rise’ and will feature “all new material”. The following day NME ran another article here, and then another one a couple of days later!
Kerrang! have an interview with Alice as well, while The Mirror also ran the tour announcement and added their usual expert research – “First album ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ was released in 1969”. Hmm..
Ryan Roxie’s UK shows at the weekend were excellent. Playing songs from his solo projects DPM and Roxie 77, as well as his latest album ‘Imagine Your Reality’ and a couple of Cooper classics, Roxie and his band (Robby Miller, Sean Tobin and Rob Lane) played two storming sets in Bedford and Birmingham you really shouldn’t have missed (if you did!). While here Roxie posted a series mini-films showing real and not-so-real life on the road which you can see here.
Ryan will be playing a special show in Athens, Greece on March 16th at ‘Crow Live Stage‘. For this show Ryan will be backed by Greek Alice Cooper tribute band ‘Snakebite‘.
Nita Strauss will make a guest appearance on the debut album from ‘Over It All’, a project featuring members of Lamb Of God, Animals as Leaders and Sworn Enemy. She’s also interviewed on Wrestling Inc, and Music Radar.
Nita will be special guest for Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 on on April 14th at ‘Brick By Brick’ in San Diego, CA.
The official Alice Cooper site has been updated this morning with a full set of UK shows for October. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10am with the usual pre-sales etc before that. Support will come from The Stranglers and MC50 (Wayne Kramer’s MC5 band). The dates are:
October 4th – Manchester Arena
October 5th – Aberdeen Event Complex (Teca)
October 7th – Leeds First Direct Arena
October 8th – Brighton Centre
October 10th – London The 02
October 11th – Birmingham Resorts World (formerly Genting) Arena
October 12th – Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
Reportedly Alice will be on BBC Radio 2 this evening around 7pm to talk about the tour.
The Hollywood Vampires have announced a show at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino Events Center in Indio, CA on May 18th. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10AM PT. It’s unlikely this is a one off show so watch for more dates soon.
Ryan Roxie has announced US shows for April this year. He plays the following dates:
April 3rd – Rascals Live Music Venue, Moline, IL
April 4th – Tailgators, Cedar Rapids, IA
April 5th – Mississippi Moon Bar at Diamond Jo Dubuque, Dubuque, IA
April 6th – RocHaus, West Dundee, IL
April 7th – Top Fuel Saloon, Braidwood, IL
April 10th – The Rhythm Saloon, Mt Juliet, TN
April 11th – 37 Main, Buford, GA
April 13th – Bourbon Street. New Port Richey, FL
Don`t forget Ryan is in the UK next week for two solo shows!
Above you can see the first trailer for ‘Alice Cooper – Live From The Astroturf’ – the forthcoming documentary telling the story of the now legendary 2015 Alice Cooper band reunion in a small record shop in Texas. Filmed on eight cameras and with music mixed by Bob Ezrin the film also features interviews with the band, organiser Chris Penn and others. It will premiere at the Phoenix Film Festival in Arizona between April 4th and 14th before touring the film festival circuit. Information on when it will be released commercially should follow in the coming months.
Its
been very quiet on the news front for the last couple of the weeks.
This could be because Alice has been holed up in the studio as shown by a
photo of him with Tommy and Chuck posted by Kyler Clark. Is this the new Alice Cooper album, or maybe guesting on a Beasto Blanco track. Time will tell.
With the start of awards season he’s been out and about this weekend, firstly at Clive Davis’s celebrity Pre-Grammy bash
on Saturday (February 9th), and then I assumed he would be at the
Grammy’s ceremony itself at the Staples Center in Los Angeles yesterday,
where Jesus Christ Superstar was up for an award, but lost.
According to a tweet from UK broadcaster/comedian and AC fan Danny Baker
he was also at the BAFTA awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall last
night in London and sat next to Alice! This is weird as there are
pictures of Alice with Steven Tyler at Tyler’s Janie’s Fund Benefit at
Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles last night. It seem far more likely Alice
was in Los Angeles then London, so quite what Baker was talking about
I’m not sure. It’s not like he wouldn’t know who he was talking to.
Back in December Alice featured on ‘Top 2000 A Gogo’ in the Netherlands talking about ‘Elected’, but the video was geo-locked, preventing most people seeing it. Now it’s up on YouTube and you can see it here. (Thanks Jos)
Keri Kelli has a new band, although it’s really an old band with a new name. He’s launched ‘A New Revenge’ along with Tim ‘Ripper’ Owen’s (Judas Priest), Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy, Whitesnake) and James Kottak (Scorpions, Kingdom Come) and they have an album out on March 25th called ‘Enemies and Lovers’. The band have been playing shows for a few years now under various names, normally playing classic rock covers, but now it’s a proper band playing their own material. You can see a video for the catchy first single ‘The Way’ here which actually features ex Ozzy bassist Phil Soussan standing in for an unavailable Sarzo.
Damon Johnson has released a video for ‘Shivering Shivering’, the lead single from his ‘Memoirs Of An Uprising’ solo album which is released on March 8th via Double Dragon Records. Damon recently spoke to ‘The Classic Metal Show’ about leaving Black Star Riders and heading out on his own which you can read here.
Lastly don’t forget Ryan Roxie’s UK shows are less than two weeks away! With the Nantwich charity show postponed you only have two chances to catch Roxie playing classic solo songs as well as a few Cooper surprises. Don`t miss it! He plays Bedford Esquires on February 22nd and Birmingham ‘The Asylum’ the following night.
Below you can watch the new video for ‘The Beginning Of The End’ by Kane Roberts. Taken from his new solo album ‘The New Normal’ it features Alice along with Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz and Sheryl Cooper!
‘Heavy New York’ interviewed Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper of Beasto Blanco at NAMM yesterday and you can see the interview now on YouTube.
Ryan Roxie’s UK shows are getting closer so get your tickets before
they sell out. These are full band shows for the first time in the UK
and not to be missed. Catch Roxie at Bedford Esquires on February 22nd and The Asylum in Birmingham on February 23rd (and at the Birmingham Guitar Show during the afternoon).
Ryan was also scheduled to play the ‘Cancer On The Rocks‘
benefit show in Nantwich on February 24th but this show has been
postponed. Refunds should be available from point of purchase.
Beasto Blanco have been announced as one of two opening acts for Halestorm on their Spring US tour which runs between April 12th and May 17th. You can see the full list of dates on Loudwire.
Kane Roberts new album ‘The New Normal’ is out today, and you can listen to it in full on Spotify (and presumably iTunes etc) now. The album features Alice on ‘Beginning Of The End’ and Nita Strauss on ‘King Of The World’ along with assorted other guests.
Audio Ink Radio have a new interview with Nita which you can check out here.
Four new show dates have turned up for Europe. They are:
September 21st – Forest National, Brussels, Belgium
September 25th – Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark
September 27th – Hovet. Stockholm, Sweden
September 28th – Partille Arena, Gothenburg, Sweden
Alice Cooper will be performing at the Domination Festival in Mexico City on either May 3rd or 4th. Tickets go on sale January 23rd. Also on the bill are Kiss, Slash, Limp Bizkit, and Dream Theater among a host of others. You can check out the poster here.
Beasto Blanco have announced three headline shows around their appearance on the Megadeth cruise. They are:
February 20th – Buford, GA – 37 Main Buford
February 22nd – Miami, FL – Magic Cit Casino (MORC Pre-Party)
February 24th – Longwood, FL – Shovelhead
This years Alice Cooper Golf Tournament will happen on April 27th and 28th at the Las Sendas Golf Club in Mesa, AZ. The 27th will feature the usual ‘Rock’n’Roll Bash’ with Alice performing along with various guests, while the golf will be on the 28th.
Nita Strauss is interviewed by Mitch Lafon on his ‘Rock Talk’ show which you can listen to here. Nita will also be appearing at this years Dimebash on January 24th in Santa Anna, CA.
As
usual Alice spent the new year in Hawaii and performed at Shep Gordon’s
annual jam in aid of the Maui Food Bank at Wailea Beach Resort, along
with Steven Tyler and Mick Fleetwood. Songs performed included ‘Brown Sugar‘, ‘No More Mr Nice Guy‘, ‘Under My Wheels‘, ‘I’m Eighteen‘, ‘Poison‘ and ‘School’s Out‘,
Family and band members were also there including Sheryl, Calico,
Chuck, Glen and Nita, who backed various other performers over the
course of the evening including Disturbed’s David Draiman on ‘The Sound Of Silence‘ and Wonder Woman Lynda Carter.
Alice will reportedly remain on the island and, as last year, will perform at Willie K’s Bluesfest at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on January 5th.
Between February 28th and March 3rd Alice will be taking part in the annual “Warburton Celebrity Golf Tournament Jam” in Palm Springs which on February 28th includes a “Story Behind The Story: Songwriter’s Night”.
Ryan spent his New Year in Paso Roboles, CA performing with a reformed Glamnation along with Eric Dover and Teddy ZigZag!
There’s a few other things to catch up on from the Xmas week:
The Guardian had a short interview with Alice, parts of which have been repeated on numerous other sites. It’s nothing particularly new, just Alice again talking about his dislike of mixing politics and music, but as has happened previous times other sites have grabbed hold of the comments and built their own news stories around them.
According to an interview with Joe Perry the new Hollywood Vampire’s album is currently at the mixing stage and he hopes the band will play more shows this summer.
Rue Morgue Records have posted an article telling the story of the ‘Live From The Astroturf’ album with lots of photos and background info on the release.
Neal Smith is interviewed by Hollywood Soapbox promoting his ‘Best Of KillSmith’ CD which is out now.
Nita Strauss is interviewed by ‘The Roman Show‘ which you can see on YouTube. There’s also an interview with Nita at WSOU over at Soundcloud. Nita also came in a #6 on Ultimate Guitar‘s ‘Guitarist of the Year 2018’!
WhatsupNW have a long article about the Alice Cooper stage play ‘Shock Opera’ which background on the actors and photos. Check out the facebook page for more info.